Issues '98/Dr Prem Aggarwal

Declare population control a national emergency

We, the medical professionals in India,
want all political parties to include a health manifesto in their agendas
and proclaim it in their campaigns. We want political parties and their candidates to treat our growing population as a national
emergency.

India will have a population of one billion population very soon, and it is high time political parties committed total support
to this single, most important factor deciding the country's
fate. Population control should be declared a national emergency, and
political parties and the government should put forth maximum commitment and resources to make it a people's movement.

Political parties must treat potable water as a civil right. Providing clean,
drinking water to the people should be the responsibility of the
state. Fiftyfour per cent of all diseases in India are water borne.

Treat nutrition as child's right. Undernutrition
and malnutrition are a malaise in the country. Today's child is
tomorrow's nation builder. An unhealthy child will only contribute to an unhealthy future for the country.

We want political parties to treat primary and preventive healthcare as the citizen's right. Despite an excellent development in network of
secondary and tertiary health centres, primary health centres have remained only on papers. The frequent outbreak of
preventable epidemics and diseases only proves that.

We the want parties that will come to power to increase the budget for the health sector. The health budget has steadily decreased in every successive five year plan from 5.7 per cent of GDP
product in the first plan to 1.8 per cent in the current plan.

We want political parties to introduce compulsory health education for the
girl child. Indicators have shown that where the literacy rate of the women is higher, the health status has also improved.

Environment and sanitation must be treated as the top national
priority. India one of the most polluted countries in the world, with a range of environment-related ailments to
the disasters like the Bhopal gas tragedy. A number of epidemics of malaria, typhoid, cholera,
gastroenteritis, or dengue have shown the state of India's sanitation and
health.

Quackery must be abolished immediately. Whereas the elite
or politicians can seek the best treatment at the best places, the poor people
of the country remain at the mercy of quacks.

There should be health education for all, especially in the light of the AIDS epidemic that is threatening the fragile
health system of the country. The government should come up with programmes to involve the private sector in the national health programmes, particularly to combat the threat of AIDS.

At present, less than 20 per cent of the health service is provided by the government, while the remaining 80 per cent is managed by the
private sector. Most government programmes on health fail to take off
because of the official apathy towards the private sector involvement in
healthcare.

Dr Prem Aggarwal is general secretary of the Indian Medical Association, whose membership comprises 120,000 practising doctors. Dr Aggarwal
spoke to George Iype.